Episode 276 - Micronation Machinations

Episode 276 - Micronation Machinations

From Squaring the Strange by Ben Radford, Celestia Ward and Pascual Romero

March 27, 2026 · 1h 11m · Episode 274

About this episode

The episode explores the concept of micronations and their various motivations and characteristics.

First, Celestia gets her aura read at a trade show, and then we talk about National Science Appreciation Day, Banksy being unmasked, and the continued fallout from Marq Evans' movie "Capturing Bigfoot." For our main segment, we dive into micronations. This wide array of self-declared states showcase many strange topics we love to examine: hoaxes, ostension, performance art, crime, cosplay, cults, tourism, and a touch of mental illness. From purported do-gooders like Greenpeace and even, believe it or not, Uri Geller, to criminals hoping to evade taxes or regulation, there are so many motivations for people to purchase, build, or claim some island and design themselves a flag. Got no land? No problem! You can occupy the open sea, a raft, a platform, a glacier, outer space or cyberspace! Or a transient realm like the space between sleeping and wakefulness. Why not! We look at a few examples from the different categories of micronations, and then Celestia and Ben recount being in a micronation themselves last year (which neither realized existed until now).

People in this episode

Hosts: Celestia Ward, Ben Radford, Pascual Romero

Topics covered

  • micronations
  • hoaxes
  • performance art
  • crime
  • tourism
  • mental illness

Keywords

  • micronations
  • self-declared states
  • hoaxes
  • performance art
  • crime
  • tourism
  • mental illness

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Greenpeace

Books & works: Capturing Bigfoot

More episodes of Squaring the Strange

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Squaring the Strange podcast page.